Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 36:1 (NA 1985)
Article: Quinta/E’ In Four Reigns
Author: David G. Deboys

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TynBul 36:1 (1985) p. 163

Quinta/E’ In Four Reigns1 2

David G. Deboys

When Origen compiled his multi-columned Hexapla,3 that aptl named ‘monument to misguided industry’,4 he used

TynBul 36:1 (1985) p. 164

not only the three Jewish Greek versions of Aquila (α’), Symmachus (σ’) and Theodotion (θ’)5 but also (and not comprehensively) the three anonymous versions known to us as Quinta, Sexta and Septima.6 Thus his ‘Hexapla’ in places contained more than six columns.7 It is with the fifth version, Quint/e’, that we are here concerned.8

I. Previous Investigation

Quinta has spasmodically attracted scholarly attention. Prior to this century we note only two works. The earlier is by B. Walton, who reviewed the ancient ecclesiastical testimony to Quinta in his Prolegomena,9 and then noted that Quinta (with Sexta and Septima) appears to have covered only part of the Old Testament.10 The other is by F. Field, who also reviewed the patristic evidence.11 Field drew special attention to ε’ in iv R: ‘In libro Regum iv, quem Heptaplarem fuisse constat, lectiones τῆς E’ innumeras prius incognitas e versione Syro-Hexaplari in lucem protraximus’.12 Then, basing himself mainly on the Quinta attestations in Hosea, he offered an assessment of Quinta’s style.13

TynBul 36:1 (1985) p. 165

In 1902 F. C. Burkitt,14 while admitting that Quinta contained a variety of elements,15 claimed that it ‘contained an element ultimately derived from a pre-Massoretic Hebrew text’ and that it alone preserved ‘some notable readings of the genuine LXX’.16 He discussed one s...

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